THE RCMP TAKES OVER AS OPIOID PRODUCERS STORM THE DARKWEB

Drug overdose is a problem in many countries in the world today. Despite the policies formulated to eradicate these drugs from the street, there seems to be an alternate platform where drug dealers use to get illicit drugs to their customers.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has therefore taken a proactive measure through the collaboration with the China’s Ministry of Public Security to conduct an investigation on Opioid smuggling into Canada. These measures will seek to reduce the effect of Darknet market operations, and eventually, check drug overdose in Canada.

The collaboration started last year after Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada signed an agreement with Li Keqiang, the Chinese Premier, in Ottawa in September 2016.

`China as a country has its own share of the overdose, and it was released that over 49,000 users died of drug abuse in 2014. China also recorded about 1.2 million users of methamphetamine on 2014. It is widely known that most of the opioid drugs on the street of many countries originated from China.

Today, the vendors behind the yearly rise of drug distribution in China have taken another step to make themselves new and wide buyers on the Darknet marketplace. This has been a problem to authorities responsible for the fight against drug abuse. The fight against the existing dealers on the Darknet marketplace has been very difficult, and the recent addition of Chinese opioid dealers will be a greater challenge.

Canada is among the countries that have suffered a lot from the overdose of drugs from the Darknet. A report states that over 2,500 Canadians lost their lives from the overdose of opioid-related drugs in 2016. This is a national death rate of 8.8% per 1,000 of the population. Two thousand (2,000) deaths were also been recorded since 2015 from the overdose.

According to the public health agency in Canada, the Western Canada had a feel of the death that arises from the overdose of the opioid-related drug. Over 10% per 1,000 of the population death was recorded in the Northwest Territories, the British Columbia, and the Alberta.

Drugs are purchased anonymously on the various Darknet marketplaces and are delivered by mail, though countries such as Sweden are pushing for a change to end drug trafficking by mail. The use of Bitcoin as a mode of payment makes people safer enough to order drugs online. The high rate of overdose in countries such as Canada and China tells a lot about how popular the Darknet is, among the dealers of illicit drugs in the countries.

Canada came out with methods to fight against the ever growing deaths that arise from the drug overdose. Eric Hoskin, the Ontario Health Minister confirmed that: “Through increased partnership, enhanced surveillance and data collection, modernizing prescribing and dispensing practices, and connecting patients with high quality, the holistic care we will continue to take coordinated action to combat the opioid crisis in Ontario and across the country.”

The recent storm of the Darknet marketplace by the Chinese Opioid producers has become a threat to this fight against the drug overdose.

Concerning why they chose China for the collaboration, The Chief Superintendent of RCMP, Scott Doran said that: “We have a mutually beneficial relationship. Of course, they have issues with criminality, criminals here in Canada. “He continued that “they want what they want but we have a robust justice system that sort of has checks and balances as to people being sent back to any country. We don’t circumvent the judicial process when we are dealing with them.”

As part of the relationship, the Chinese expect the RCMP to help in tracking Chinese nationals living in Canada who are accused of economic crimes.

The RCMP is very efficient in fighting against buyers and sellers of illicit drugs on the Darknet marketplace. The Canadian police force revealed that the RCMP was behind the last year raid which aid in the identification of international distributors of the narcotics on the Dark web marketplace. The force said “In Canada, the collaboration between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada Post, and the Canada Border Services Agency led to the identification and targeting of an international distributor of narcotics based in Quebec that was operating on the Darknet. This resulted in numerous seizures and the detention of an individual involved in the international distribution of the narcotics. The investigation is ongoing.”

Usually, arresting the buyers does not end the illegal distribution of drugs until the sellers are hunted down, which is also difficult to do on the Darknet marketplace. Sup. Doran revealed this as he told reporters that “We can find recipients who are receiving packages from the Dark Web … but the reality is that the people buying it, unless they have an intimate relationship with the seller, they don’t know who the seller is either.”

The embracing of the Darknet market by the Chinese opioid producers is a worry, not only for Canada and China but also for the world at large.